1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical diagnosis support apparatus which provides information for supporting diagnosis and a method of controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, doctors perform the image diagnosis of performing diagnosing by interpreting the medical images obtained by imaging apparatuses such as an X-ray CT apparatus and an MRI. When performing image diagnosis, a doctor specifies the symptom of a lesion depicted in an image by comprehensively determining the findings (to be referred to as “interpretation findings” hereinafter) obtained from the image and various kinds of measurement values in accordance with an interpretation request from a primary doctor. The doctor then compiles the process of reaching the diagnosis into an interpretation report to the primary doctor as the request source by using interpretation findings and measurement values.
Such a diagnosis support apparatus designed to support image diagnosis has been developed. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-200840 discloses a technique of presenting negative information and positive information concerning the estimation result obtained by an apparatus based on information which has been input (to be referred to as “input information” hereinafter). This makes it possible to present the inference result and also present information influencing the derivation of the inference result from the apparatus based on the input information.
The doctor creates an interpretation report in consideration of the inference result presented by the diagnosis support apparatus. This raises the problem that a heavy burden is imposed on the doctor when creating report sentences. For this reason, attempts have been made to automatically create report sentences by using an inference result from a diagnosis support apparatus. For example, Japanese Patent No. 3332104 discloses a technique of creating interpretation report sentences including an inference result by combining the inference result with a template.
However, the interpretation report sentences automatically created by the method disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3332104 do not write how the inference result has been derived. For this reason, the primary doctor cannot know the process of reaching the conclusion even by reading this report. That is, the report sentences are difficult for the primary doctor as the request source to understand. The doctor therefore needs to perform the editing operation of, for example, adding sentences for explaining the ground of diagnosis to automatically created report sentences.